For aircraft certification and modeling for simulation, the actual height of the aircraft during flight must be determined accurately within a threshold value typically of a few feet. This is required in order to pass various certifications. One method for calculating aircraft height uses a barometric loop (baro loop) of inertial reference sensor data. However, the baro loop produces some errors that reduce the accuracy when determining actual aircraft altitude.
Other current methods use height derived from inertial vertical speed with corrections for ambient pressure and temperature. However, these methods may not have desired accuracy for these applications. This is due to designs of aircraft inertial systems, which bias their vertical calculations with pressure inputs from the aircraft's sensors.
Therefore, there exists an unmet need to more accurately determine aircraft height for post-flight testing and aircraft modeling.